“Credit unions are competing against institutions with far larger technology budgets, and collaboration is how we close that gap.”
That’s April Clobes, and it’s a fair summary of why she’s now joining the Board of Directors at Nymbus, the core banking platform for U.S. banks and credit unions.
Clobes is President and CEO of Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU), a $9.3 billion institution serving more than 415,000 members through 35 branches and over 1,400 employees. She isn’t new to the Nymbus orbit. She already sits on the board of Nymbus CUSO, a credit union service organization (a company owned by credit unions to deliver shared services) formed in March 2021 to connect credit unions with trusted fintech offerings. The new role moves her involvement up to the company level.
What she brings is a view from both sides of the technology table. She runs a large credit union that buys and uses this technology, and she’s also CEO of Reseda Group, the wholly owned CUSO MSUFCU formed in 2021 to invest in and scale fintech companies serving the industry. Her career at MSUFCU stretches three decades. She joined in 1996, moved through a range of positions, and became President and CEO in 2015.
The two organizations have worked together before. In 2025, MSUFCU partnered with Nymbus to convert two acquired community banks, Algonquin State Bank and McHenry State Bank, onto Pillur, a digital banking platform built for small and medium-sized businesses. The project recently earned a Finopotamus Tekkie Award for Core Innovation.
Jeffery Kendall, chairman and CEO of Nymbus, said Clobes “has built one of the most forward-thinking credit unions in the country and then built a CUSO around it, so she understands exactly what we are building at Nymbus.” He added that she knows where credit unions get stuck, which partnerships actually deliver, and what it takes to turn technology into growth. Clobes, for her part, said Nymbus offers credit unions “a practical path to modern technology without waiting years to get there,” and that she wants to help expand that access across the industry.
Her résumé carries plenty of outside validation, too. American Banker named her one of the Most Powerful Women in Credit Unions. She has received an ATHENA award from the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce, an Honorary Alumni Award from Oakland University, the Michigan State University Distinguished Alumni Award, and three Detroit Free Press Top Workplaces Leadership Awards. Crain’s Detroit Business made her a Newsmaker in 2023, and she’s a 2026 Women of Influence honoree. She also serves on several fintech advisory boards and on numerous organizations supporting credit unions and the wider business community.
Next up is seeing how her board seat shapes Nymbus’s offerings for credit unions of every size, and whether more institutions follow MSUFCU’s lead on conversions like the Pillur project.